(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transfer car for transporting a container of material from a storage facility and dumping the contents of the container at a preselected site. More particularly, the present invention relates to a transfer car including means to rotate a container mounted onto a transfer car. The transport vehicle rides on a rail system and is self-powered thereby allowing for automated and computerized material transportation and discharging. The transport vehicle allows a container to be loaded into the interior portion of the vehicle whereupon the container is transported to a destination site where the vehicle then inverts the container such that the contents of the container are fully discharged. The vehicle then returns to the storage facility with the empty container and unloads the empty container so that said container can be refilled. The vehicle may then be reloaded with another container whose contents may then be automatically transported to a possibly different dumping site. The transport vehicle provides means for loading the container into the transport vehicle, securing the container within the vehicle, raising the lid of the container, moving the container to a different site, and then inverting the container such that the contents of the container are fully discharged. By providing a transfer car, such as is the subject of the present invention, human intervention is not required for the transferring of the material stored in the containers at a storage facility to the eventual destinations and dumping site.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
While there generally vehicles known for transporting containers of different size and shape material, the Applicant is unaware of any transport vehicle which fulfills the goals of the present invention. The current system utilizes a transfer car which has a shuttle to retrieve a delided container from a rack. Once the container is onboard the transfer car, the transfer car delivers the container to the selected bulker. The container is transferred from the transfer car into a rotating dumper using the same shuttle that was used for loading the transfer car. A rotating dumper is permanently mounted on each tobacco bulker. After the container is dumped, the empty container is loaded onto the transfer car again utilizing the shuttle. The transfer car then delivers the empty container back to the rack and unloads the container using the shuttle again to remove the container from the car to the rack. The Applicant is currently unaware of any transfer vehicles which can load, transport, rotate to varying degrees and dump storage containers as is described herein.